{"id":27495,"date":"2013-02-12T01:20:53","date_gmt":"2013-02-12T00:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/Truthdig\/~3\/CLqFZXlFSyA\/"},"modified":"2013-02-12T01:20:53","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T00:20:53","slug":"has-obama-kept-his-open-government-pledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/has-obama-kept-his-open-government-pledge\/","title":{"rendered":"Has Obama Kept His Open-Government Pledge?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Has Obama Kept His Open-Government Pledge?<\/h2>\n
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Posted on Feb\u00a011,\u00a02013<\/h6>\n\n\n\n\n
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The White House\/Pete Souza<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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By Jennifer LaFleur, ProPublica<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article first appeared on ProPublica<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

After eight years of tightened access to government records under the Bush administration, open-government advocates were hopeful when Barack Obama promised greater transparency.<\/p>\n

Four years later, did the president keep his promise?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a mixed bag,\u201d said Patrice McDermott, executive director of OpenTheGovernment.org<\/a>, a consortium of right-to-know groups. \u201cI think they\u2019ve made progress, but a whole lot more remains to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Obama administration set the bar high. In his first inaugural address<\/a>, Obama said that \u201cthose of us who manage the public\u2019s dollars\u201d will \u201cdo our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next day, the president issued two memos. In one on the Freedom of Information Act<\/a>, he wrote that FOIA \u201cshould be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second memo addressed transparency<\/a>: \u201cMy administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government.\u201d And that \u201copenness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in government.\u201d<\/p>\n

But transparency was not defined in detail, said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy<\/a> at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). \u201cPeople were left to imagine whatever they wanted to be the content of those statements. Inevitably, disappointment soon followed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next came more memos and directives, including a memo from Attorney General Eric Holder<\/a> encouraging federal agencies to release discretionary information and a White House directive outlining an open-government to-do list<\/a> for agencies.<\/p>\n

Among the assigned tasks:<\/p>\n